There are 33 letters in the Ukrainian alphabet:
– 22 consonants: б, в, г, ґ, д, ж, з, й, к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ. The consonant letter й is sometimes called a semivowel, its sound is close to [i].
– 10 vowels: а, е, є, и, і, ї, о, у, ю, я.
One letter of the Ukrainian alphabet does not designate any sound on its own. This is a “soft sign” (ь), which softens the previous consonant.
The apostrophe (‘) does the opposite, it shows that the preceding consonant should be pronounced hard.
There are no words that start with the letter “и” or “ь”.
Ukrainian letters and their equivalent in English
The standard Ukrainian keyboard layout for personal computers is as follows:
Need to type in Ukrainian? Use this site or pop up Google virtual Ukrainian keyboard
How to read in Ukrainian
Ukrainian is easy to read, as one letter generally corresponds to one phoneme. In other words, letters are read in the way they are written.
Ukrainian vowels and their pronunciation
There are 6 hard vowels, and they are pronounced in the following manner:
А like “a” in “car”
Е like short “e” in “let”
И like short “i” in “live” (the sound goes to the back of the tongue)
І like long “e” in “keep”
О like “o” in “cord” or “a” in “call”
У like “oo” in “cool”
Additionally, there are 4 soft vowels.
These are essentially diphthongs, a merge of sound “i” with one of the hard vowels.
Я = I + А like in “yankee”
Є = I + E like in “yellow”
Ї = I (elongated) like in “yeast”
Ю = I + U like in “you” or “use”
Related: Ukrainian-to-English Dictionary
Where does the stress fall in Ukrainian words?
The stress of a word always falls on a vowel.
Stressed vowels are marked with the acute accent (‘) in dictionaries and other educational books.
Please note: accent mark is not an inherent part of a letter, you won’t find it in usual texts. Accents are just used for educational purposes – to show learners which syllable is stressed.
Sometimes, you will see Ukrainian words with 2 stress marks, which means that both pronunciations are possible – either one or another vowel can be stressed, but not two at a time. For example, за́га́дка (mystery) can be pronounced as за́гaдка or загáдка.
Also, you will notice that one-syllable (or one-vowel) words don’t have an accent mark over them, that is because the stress falls on this very syllable, so no need to mark it.
Placing the stress on the correct syllable is important when speaking Ukrainian. Mistaken word stress not only sounds weird, but it can also change the meaning of a word.
Finally, please keep in mind that even same-root words can have different stress when they become different parts of speech, for example:
| су́мнів | súmniv | noun | doubt |
| сумніва́тися | sumnivátysia | verb | to doubt |
| сумнíвний | sumnívnyi | adjective | doubtful |
Ukrainian consonants and their pronunciation
As already mentioned, the Ukrainian language is essentially phonetic. Some Ukrainian consonants are pronounced like their English counterparts, while others – not. Some English digraphs (like “ch”) are represented by single letters in Ukrainian. And some letters and digraphs (compound letters like “th”) do not exist in Ukrainian at all.
Ukrainian consonants that look like English letters
The simplest group is those that look and sound like their English counterparts. There are three of them:
К / к like “k” in “kitten”
М / м like “m” in “moon”
Т / т like “t” in “talk”
Ukrainian consonants that look different but sound like English letters
The next group is consonants that look different but have similar equivalents in English. They are pronounced as shown here:
Б like “b” in “bad”
В like “v” in “vivid”
Ґ like “g” in “good”
Д like “d” in “desk”
З like “z” in “zebra”
Й like “y” in “yellow”, Й in the end of the word sounds like “i” elongated
Л like “l” in “lamp”
Н like “n” in “no”
П like “p” in “pool”
С like “s” in “sad”
Ф like “f” in “flamingo”
Х like “kh”/ “h” in “Helsinki”
Ukrainian consonants that correspond to 2 or more English letters
Another group is consonants represented by two or more letters (e.g. digraphs) in English. There are 5, and they are pronounced as shown here:
Ж like “zh” in “Brezhnev,” or the “s” in “vision”
Ц like the “ts” in “nets” or the “zz” in “pizza”
Ч like the “ch” in “change”
Ш like the “sh” in “shutter”
Щ as “sh” + “ch” in “pushchair”
Ukrainian consonants that look and sound different from English letters
There are also Ukrainian consonants that don’t have similar equivalents in English. There are two of them, and their pronunciation is challenging for English speakers.
Г a soft “g” that is close to “h”, a sound between “g” and “h”
Р an “r” sound, but harder and more rolled than an English “r”
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Softening and hardening of Ukrainian consonants
Ukrainian consonant letters can be pronounced either “soft” or “hard” depending on the type of letter that follows them.
This aspect can be difficult for many English speakers – the softening of some consonants when combined with certain vowels or the softening mark (ь).
Which consonants are concerned?
There are 7: Д, З, Л, Н, С, Т, and Ц.
When are they softened?
In 3 cases:
1. When they precede the “ь.” For example, in “ідуть” (they are going), the final –ть makes a sound like a “t” and “i” merged together: “ idut’ “
2. When they precede the vowel “i.” In the word “лінивий” (lazy), the “i” softens the “л”.
3. When they precede any of the soft vowels: Є, Ї, Ю, Я. In the case of the word “тютюн” (tobacco), the “ю” softens the preceding “т” and it is pronounced “tiu.”
When are they not softened?
Sometimes, though, words where the consonant should be softened aren’t pronounced that way. How can you tell? Because an apostrophe will be placed, separating the consonant and vowel. For example, “з’їзд” (convention) the apostrophe prevents the “з” from softening, separating the two sounds completely.
Read Ukrainian letters – Pronunciation of Ukrainian letters within words
Learn to read Ukrainian letters within words – watch on YouTube
Let’s start practicing reading and listening in Ukrainian – check out the 1st link below to learn the lyrics of Ukraine’s song for Eurovision 2024
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